Jesus Feeds the 5,000

Introduction

We are going to direct our focus on a passage today that is one of my favorites. The story I am going to share with you this morning is one you have heard before, but there is a little challenge that comes with reading it really often. This morning, I am really excited to share with you what Jesus wants us to know from the book of Matthew. Just to remind you, the guy who God used to write the book of Matthew was named Matthew and He was a close and personal friend of Jesus. Matthew was one of the disciples who spent years following Jesus, learning from Him, and getting to know Him. Now, God wants to use this same story to let us Get to know Him closely just like those guys who used to hang with Him during His ministry on Earth.

In order to bring you up to speed I want to share with you what was going on just before Jesus does this amazing miracle.

Jesus actually had a cousin who was called John the baptist. One day Jesus heard that his cousin had been killed. Not only was Jesus’ cousin killed, He was beheaded! which means his head was cut off. when Jesus heard about what happened to His cousin, He was obviously really upset just like anybody would be if something like this happened to someone you loved.

Now that you are all in the loop, Check out this next verse in to see what happens next.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.

What kind of place did Jesus go to?

A DESOLATE PLACE!

Jesus was really upset and, like we need to do sometimes, Jesus needed to get away and from everything. That is what desolate means. Jesus wanted to get away and just think and pray and process the news He just heard.

Raise your hand if you have ever been really sad, upset, or just really mad and you just felt like you needed some alone time?

Go ahead and put your hands down

Raise your hand if you have ever tried to get away from people and then you have someone come bother you or mess you you while you were trying to get away?

Let’s read on and see how Jesus handles that.

Matthew 14:13–14 ESV

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 14:

We will see in the next verse if Jesus was able to be alone very long.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Jesus went away to take a moment to think and pray, but the people wouldn't leave Him alone. As soon as people heard where Jesus was they flooded to Him in order to hear Him speak.

Try and take a moment to imagine how you would feel if you were in this situation and how you would respond if someone you love just died and people are crowded around you asking you to teach them things.

I may be a little bit overwhelmed in a situation like that!

Jesus went to the people and as He looked out at them, the Bible says that He had compassion on them and healed their sick. He spent so much time healing them and then evening came.

At this point, this has been a pretty incredible day. Jesus Has been through some really hard things, He has healed many many people, but guess what… HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED!

So Jesus is going along doing His thing, healing all of these people and the disciples come to Him because they have discovered a problem that they feel they need to bring to Jesus’ attention.

Problem #1

Jesus, the disciples, and thousands of people surrounding them are in the middle of nowhere and THEY ARE GETTING HUNGRY!

sometimes I feel like I can really relate to the disciples! Raise your hand if you have ever been hungry and you had no food around you?

I love

The Disciple’s Solution Matthew 13:15

Send everyone away to

go into the villages

buy food for themselves

Jesus’ Response

The way Jesus responds to the disciples here throws them off little bit so lets look down at the end of verse 16 to find out why.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

I hope you don’t miss how much food Jesus is asking them to come up with here. In order to help us understand a little bit better what is going on here, I’ll ask you to use your imagination here. I have a bit of a wild imagination and I love to use it in times like this so stick with me here.

Think about what happens after church every Sunday morning. For most people, its lunch time or maybe late breakfast time after church. Either way, many people go grab some food after church. (Raise your hand if you and your family do that?) Well, imagine that after the last Sunday morning service, just before the service ends, PASTOR JEREMIAH, our head pastor, calls you into the worship center and asks you to feed everyone in the church from all services! Now that we are all using our imaginations on just how many people that would be, if you doubled the number of people who come to our church on a Sunday morning, THAT IS HOW MANY POEPLE WERE THERE THAT DAY WHEN JESUS WAS HEALING THEM IN MATTHEW 13!!!

Problem #2

Not only did the disciples feel helpless because of the food quality of their location, they also believed the quantity was a problem too. In other words, THEY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH FOOD! They looked around and found they all they had was 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread.

What the disciples had to offer

5 loaves of bread

2 fish

The disciples were confident that they did not have what it takes to feed all the people who were gathered there that day. To them, it was a simple issue that did not take much thought at all. We have 5,000 men plus women and children so around 15,000 - 20,000 people here and only a few pieces of food. The disciples take what they have, present it to Jesus pretty much say see, its not enough.

This bread in the hands of the disciples was a disappointment, but it had a very different impact in Jesus’ hands.

When Jesus saw the bread he told the disciples to bring it to Him and lets follow along to see what happens next in verse 17-21

English Standard Version Chapter 14

17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

This story of Jesus miraculously feeding all these people is just awesome in a lot of ways, but the most outstanding is the difference in the way we see our gifts and the way Jesus sees our gifts.

The disciples felt down and defeated because all they had was a few pieces of food. They did not think they had what it took to do what Jesus commanded them. So the disciples made the wrong call. they wanted to send people away.

Obviously, Jesus had a very different plan. Jesus saw the little bit the disciples had and had a plan to use that to do great things.

Application

I think we have a lot in common with the disciples when it comes to our gifts. The fact is, God created each of us specifically to life in a relationship with Him and follow His plan for our lives and He has provided us with everything we need to follow Him. I think our problem comes in to play when we look at the gifts that God has given us

Our voice- sing, share the gospel, spread the love of Jesus

Our talents- Sports, math, reading, memorizing

Our interests- anything.

God has given us so many talents and he didn’t give them to us so that we can tell Him “God, I don’t think this is enough!” We need to take our talents and pray to God and say “Father, how can I use what I have to bring you glory and point people to you?” God will blow your mind with all He can do with our gifts when we pray a prayer like that.

My story:

When I was in college, I felt God laying homeless people on my heart. I just really felt like I needed to talk to homeless people about Jesus and just kind of love them. I didn’t really know what to do. All I knew was that I needed to talk to people on the streets about Jesus. So, I got in my car most weekends, drove to a city not too far from my school, and walked the streets looking for homeless people to talk to. As I talked to them I found that they didnt really want to hear what I had to say that much. There were other things they wanted more like socks, underwear, and other clothes. they explained that they didn't have homes, or money so they couldn't do laundry or buy stuff like that. I didn't have money and I was living in a dorm so I felt kind of helpless at that point.

I did all I knew to do. I prayed that night and said “God, I am doing what I feel like you want me to, I try to talk to them about you, but they say they need socks and underwear and don’t want to talk. So I just asked God to show me what to do. Later that week, one of my friends asked me how it was going as I tried sharing the gospel with homeless people and I just shared with them the same thing I shared with y'all.

He came back into my room a few days later and said GRANT I HAVE GREAT NEWS! so my mom actually works for a company that makes socks and they want to donate a ton of socks to you. Days later I have boxes and boxes of socks show up to my door from my friends moms company.

Some other friends and I made little care packs with socks and a few other things they needed. The next time I went downtown to talk to homeless people I took some of those care packs in my backpack and handed them out. After that, I was able to have some really great conversations with so many people and share Jesus with a lot of homeless people.

Look at what all God did!! I didn’t have anything really and God made a way and provided everything we needed to do what he wanted us to.

CHALLENGE:

Pick one gift that God has given you. Ask God to show you how to use your gift to bring Him glory this week.

Prayer